Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Two well-known literary writers from Montreal -- poetry mostly -- have been swept up and named in the sexual misconduct allegations now swirling around Concordia University. Both Dave McGimpsey -- until recently a contributing editor to the litmag Joyland -- and Jon Paul Fiorentino -- also a contributor to Joyland and at one time editor-in-chief of Matrix have apparently been relieved of their part-time teaching gigs, at least while Concordia conducts a wide-ranging investigation.

McGimpsey (left) and Fiorentino

Joyland responded to reports that the two were under investigation by saying it would remove Fiorentino's work from the magazine's archive, according to a story on CBC.ca.

In January, writer Mike Spry published an essay describing a toxic atmosphere within the [creative writing] program. Spry has undergraduate and graduate degrees in English literature and creative writing from Concordia. In his essay, Spry described widespread sexual misconduct without naming individuals. His essay was shared widely, and within days, Concordia's administration took several measures in response. It promised to launch a third-party investigation.